en in those days she gave them back wrong for wrong
and scorn for scorn; and as she grew older she grew stronger of will,
less prone to forgive her many injuries and slights, and more prone to
revenge them in an obstinate, bitter fashion. But as she grew older she
grew handsomer too, and the fisher boys who had jeered at her in her
childhood were anxious enough to gain her good-will.

The women flouted her still, and she defied them openly; the men found
it wisest to be humble in their rough style, and her defiance of them
was more scornful than her defiance of their mothers and sisters. She
would revenge herself upon them, and did, until at last she met a wooer
who was tender enough, it seemed, to move her. At least so people said
at first; but suddenly the lover disappeared, and two or three months
later the whole community was electrified by her sudden marriage with a
suitor whom she had been wont to treat worse than all the rest. How she
treated him after the marriage nobody knew. She was more defiant and
silent than ever, and gossipers gained nothing by asking questions. So
at last she was left alone.

It was not the face of a tender wife waiting for a loving husband, the
face that was turned toward the sea. If she had hated the man for whom
she watched she could not have seemed more unbending. Ever since her
visitor had left her (she had had a visitor during the morning) she had
stood in the same place, even in the same position, without moving, and
when at last the figure of her husband came slouching across the sands
homeward she remained motionless still.

And surely his was not the face of a happy husband. Not a handsome
face at its dull best, it was doubly unprepossessing then, as, pale
and breathless, he passed the stern form in the doorway, his nervous,
reluctant eyes avoiding hers.

"Yo'll find yo're dinner aw ready on th' table," she said to him as he
passed in.

Everything was neat enough inside. The fireplace was clean and bright,
the table was set tidily, and the meal upon it was good enough in its
way; but when the man entered he cast an unsteady, uncomprehending
glance around, and when he had flung himself into a chair he did not
attempt to touch the food, but dropped his face upon his arm on the
table with a sound like a little groan.

She must have heard it, but she did not notice it even by a turn of her
head, but stood erect and steadfast until he spoke to her. She might
have been waiting